I received several emails last season about pretty pink flowering strawberries that produced no fruit. When we see these pretty plants at a “big box store” we just have to pick them up and take them home. Will you get fruit? The short answer is “that depends”.

I’m bringing this up now because I’m starting to offer seeds and plants with pink or rose flowers. Those that I have selected will produce fruit. These include ‘Fragissimo’ and ‘Tarpan’. We’ll talk more about those in another post.

Back to the pretty non productive ones. I found an excellent site that explains where these strawberries come from. The link is at Fragaria x Potentilla Hybrids. Strawberries that are grown for ornamental purposes that do not produce fruit include: ‘Pink Panda’ (also known as ‘Frel’), ‘Franor’ (aka ‘Red Ruby Strawberry’), ‘Gerald Straley’, and ‘Lipstick’. If you’re buying these for ornamental purposes then they are good choices. But, why buy ornamental strawberries when there are REAL strawberry varieties with pretty pink or rose flowers that produce tasty fruit?